L: Lappos – Lowe Military Quotes and Quotations
“If you’re in a fair fight, you didn’t plan it properly.”
– Nick Lappos, Chief R&D Pilot, Sikorsky Aircraft.
I must follow them. I am their leader.
– Andrew Bonar Law, 1858-1923
“With two thousand years of examples behind us we have no excuse, when fighting, for not fighting well.”
– T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia)
“Nine-tenths of tactics are certain and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pond and that is the test of generals. It can only be ensured by instinct, sharpened by thought practicing the stroke so often at the crisis it is as natural as a reflex.”
– T.E. Lawrence, “The Science of Guerrilla Warfare”
“They taught me that no man could be their leader except he ate the ranks’ food, wore their clothes, lived level with them, and yet appeared better in himself.”
– T.E. Lawrence, “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”
“We cannot afford to be idle, and though weaker than our opponents in men and military equipments, must endeavor to harass if we cannot destroy them”
– General Robert E. Lee, September 1862, in a letter to President Jefferson Davies.
“It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it.”
– General Robert E. Lee
“All military history records the triumphs of discipline and courage far more frequently than numbers and resources.”
– General Robert E. Lee, February 1865
“I don’t mind being called tough, since I find in this racket it’s the tough guys who lead the survivors.”
– Colonel Curtis LeMay
“Tell the Vietnamese they’ve got to draw in their horns or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.”
– Gen. Curtis LeMay, May 1964
“The soundest strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of the mortal blow both possible and easy.”
– Vladimir I. Lenin, Russian revolutionary leader
“I’ve heard that he who strikes first can defeat the enemy. He who strikes last will be beaten.”
– Rebel general Xiang Liang, Qin Dynasty
“Only the spirit of attack, borne in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.”
– Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896)
“Generals speak often of their military duty to their superiors, but never of their duty to their soldiers.”
– Helmut Lindmann, German military historian
“Nobody has yet found a way of bombing that can prevent foot soldiers from walking.”
– Walter Lippmann
“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.”
– Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974
“No art or science is as difficult as that of war.”
– Henry Humphrey Evans Lloyd, eighteenth-century British military analyst
“If the entire Union Army comes across here, I will kill them all!”
– Lieutenant-General James Longstreet, December 1862, at Marye’s Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
“Better a thousand times to die with glory than live without honor.”
– Louis VI of France, 1081-1137
“The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of MARINES. LORD, how they could fight!”
-Maj. Gen. Frasnk Lowe, US. Army
I can’t guarantee that these quotations are correct or true, but I have tried to verify as many of the quotes as possible. Please contact me if you find any errors in the quotes, have some additional information about the quotes or if you know any more quotations that are not listed here.
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